History of advertising photography
American historians believe that the first advertising photographs appeared in the XIX century.
Of course, they were not as bright and beautiful as in our days. During its rather long history, an advertising photo has been formed as a separate direction with its technical features of shooting and ideas about the effectiveness of its creation.
The emergence and development of advertising photography
The active use of images as advertising of goods began from the end of the 20s. of the last century.
In the publishing houses and advertising agencies began to appear the departments of “advertising art”, which specialized in photography. Photo artists whose work belonged to different avant-garde areas turned to commercial photography.
Advertising was done by such photographers as Man Ray and Andre Kertes. Francois Collard founded the photo studio Dreager.
Experts in the field of sales and product promotion understood that photography would cause more consumer confidence than drawing. A photo of Collard, where a typewriter is depicted with such sensitive buttons that they react to the weight of a feather, looks much more convincing than any drawn picture.
The heyday of advertising and commercial photos fell at the peak of the formation of the consumer society – the middle of the last century.
Eliotta Erwitt’s advertising photo “Keep Life Simple.”
Features of commercial photography
Now many popular photographers are attracted to the commercial genre, and with it the prospect of wide recognition of their work. The photographer and the company engaged in the production of the product enter into relationships that are aimed at confirming their image.
It is known that popular photographers collaborate with prestigious companies.
Advertising photography is the result of many professionals, not just a photographer. Assistants, make-up artists and technicians take part in the process of its creation.
It takes a lot of people to do expensive promotional photography. As a result, this system is gaining momentum and it is almost impossible to stop or redirect it to another channel.
Prominent commercial photographers
There are also commercial photographers who work for fun. But the feature of commercial photographs is that they belong to the customer, and, therefore, the photographer can not hold an exhibition of their work.
However, there are exceptions. For example, Guy Bourdain, an outstanding photographer of this genre, is also one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century, and his work had a strong influence on the art of this time.
The works of photographer Kertesh became part of the history of photography of the last century. The same can be said about the photographs of such masters as Blumenfeld and Irving Penn, whose works initially had a commercial orientation, and then entered into the canons of the history of photography.
